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A-C | D-F | G-L | M-O | P-Q | R-Z
AGGREGATE BREEDING VALUE: Also net merit. The breeding value of an
individual for a combination of traits.
AGOUTI: Thought to be a locus on the chromosome where color occurs.
Sometimes also called the wild or natural color gene (this would be vicuna color
in alpacas).
ALLELE: An alternative form of a gene.
ALTIPLANO: The high plateau in southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia
located around Lake Titicaca.
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION (AI): A reproductive technology in which semen
is collected from males, then used in fresh or frozen form to breed females.
ARTIFICIAL SELECTION: Selection that is under human control.
AYLLOS: Small remote Peruvian communities of Indian shepherds.
BACKCROSSING: (1) The mating of a hybrid to a purebred of a parent
breed or line. (2) The mating of an individual (purebred or hybrid) to any other
individual (purebred or hybrid) with which it has one or more ancestral breeds
or lines in common.
BASE POPULATION: The population of animals whose parents are either
unknown or ignored for the purposes of inbreeding and relationship calculation.
Typically the individuals appearing at the back of the pedigrees of the original
animals in a herd or flock.
BC1: Backcross one. The first generation of crosses between hybrids
and-purebreds of a parent breed or line.
BERSERK MALE: A male who was afforded too much affection by humans as
a cria and shows no fear of them as an adult.
BIOLOGICAL TYPE: A classification for animals with similar genotypes
for traits of interest. Examples include heavy draft types (horses), prolific
wool types (sheep), large dual-purpose types (cattle), and tropically adapted
types (many species).
BIOTECHNOLOGY: The application of biological knowledge to practical
needs. Often refers to (1) technologies for altering reproduction, or (2)
technologies for locating, identifying, comparing, or otherwise manipulating
genes.
BLANKET: The highest quality fleece which begins at the shoulder, runs
the full length of the back and down each side until it meets the more medulated
fiber on the belly. Excludes neck, leg, chest, belly, and britch. The term
originated from the image of a horse's saddle blanket.
BLOODLINE: Breeder's term that alludes to pedigree.
BREED: A race of animals within a species. Animals of the same breed
usually have a common origin and similar identifying characteristics.
BREEDING OBJECTIVE: (1) A weighted combination of traits defining
aggregate breeding, value for use in an economic selection index. (2) A general
goal for a breeding program -- a notion of what constitutes the best animal.
BREEDING VALUE: (1) The value of an individual as a (genetic) parent.
(2) The part of an individual's genotypic value that is due to independent and
therefore transmittable gene effects.
BREED TRUE: Alpacas breed true if two parents with a particular,
simply inherited phenotype produce offspring of that same phenotype
exclusively.
BREED TYPE: The look of an alpaca.
BUNDLED STAPLES: A grouping of microstaples that together form a
larger staple. The formation of the microstaples is determined by the
arrangement and density of the follicles in the skin. Bundling is said to be an
indicator of a dense fleece, due to the evenness of follicle size and
consistency of shape in the skin. Cameron Holt, Private Correspondence.
BURNING: Removing vegetable matter from fiber during processing
through the use of chemicals.
CAMPESINO: An agrarian peasant of Peru.
CARDING: The final cleaning process, accomplished by either hand or
machine, through which alpaca fiber goes before spinning.
CHACU: A vicuna drive or capture that originated with the Incas.
CHARACTERISTIC: A specific phenotypic trait, such as crimp or
fineness.
CHROMOSOME: One of a number of long strands of DNA and associated
proteins present in the nucleus of every cell.
CH'UMPI: Quechua word for the color sorrel.
CLOSE INBREEDING: A measure of the degree of relationship between
ancestors. The more the relationship, the closer the inbreeding.
CLOSED NUCLEUS BREEDING SCHEME: A nucleus breeding scheme in which
germ plasma flows in only one direction - from the nucleus to cooperating herds
or flocks.
CLOSED POPULATION: A population that is closed to genetic material
from the outside.
CO-EFFICIENT OF VARIATION (cv): The variation around the mean
expressed as a percentage.
COLLATERAL RELATIVES: Relatives that are neither direct ancestors nor
direct descendants of an individual--siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, and
nephews.
COLOR GENES: Genes which determine an alpaca's coat color.
CORRECTIVE MATING: The mating of alpacas that is intended to correct
faults, for example, mating a dam with a bad bite to a stud with a good
bite.
CRIA: A camelid less than one year old.
CRIMP: The regular undulation along the length of an individual fiber
or lock of fiber. A higher number of crimps per inch can indicate a finer
fiber.
CROSSING OVER: A reciprocal exchange of chromosome segments between
homologues. Crossing over occurs during meiosis prior to the time the homologous
chromosomes are separated to form gametes.
CULLING: The process that determines which animals in a herd will not
be bred.
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Ideal Alpaca Library
